Paradise Calling

Chapter 5

When at last they broke away, the air still hung with the remembrance of the faraway visit. The visit to a second world, of higher ecstasy than imaginable. They walked around the hut, and when they saw the bodies, Caroline burst into tears. Andy held her tightly, for the minutes that seemed like hours to her.  Then they went inside the hut. Caroline picked up the sleeping child, hugging it to her.

"What'll you call her?" asked Andy gently.

"Chloe," replied Caroline.

"Chloe," murmured Andrew, turning the name over in his head. "Yes, I like that. It's a beautiful name - I've never known anyone called it until now."

"I'm glad you like it," agreed Caroline. "Mm, I wonder do you think 'Irene' would be better, just possibly?!!"

"N- no!" decided Andrew. "Look I - I think we'd better be heading back now."

"Alright," said Caroline.

"There are fruit trees over there." He pointed to a clump of trees outside. "Bananas and dates? I think."

"Good, I'm starving. Go and get some!"

"Okay, Caro. What?"

"Bananas please!"

"Personally I would prefer a date," said Andy wickedly.

"Only one?" laughed Caroline.

"No, lots, forever and ever."

"Andy!" threatened Caroline. Andrew laughed, and ran outside to get the fruit. Caroline gave the baby a little more of the coconut milk. It drank some, but then pushed the nut away, so Caroline set it down on the table again. She wiped the tiny face clean with a cloth. "Chloe" looked up at her with innocent brown eyes. Too young to know of the disaster and tragedy of her parents' death. Caroline wondered if she should ever be told, told of the paradise of her birth, made bitter by killing. The danced in at the tiny window through the crack in the shutters, so Caroline opened them wider. She wondered if they should take blankets from the bed: they were of a roughly woven hemp-like fibre. Was it wrong though - like stealing off gravestones? Caroline remembered her childhood, of Right! or Wrong!

Caroline's thoughts drifted back to her home, but she did not cry. She thought of her parents, her brother Mark, and Solar the fat, big yellow cat. Her boyfriends, Rick and Simon, who fought over who should go out with her. Her friends Lucy, and Vicki, and their boyfriend: Mike and Paul. School - well, she had enough of that with the Grahams here! But how shallow it seemed now, like play acting, like a romantic photo story. She wondered what would happen to Andy and her once they got back.

Andrew came back inside, panting heavily. "What took you?" asked Caroline. The trees hadn't been high. Andrew put the fruit on the table, and replied:

"I moved the bodies. Into the thicket behind, out of sight." Caroline shuddered.

"Oh," she said quietly.

Andrew handed her a banana, he had picked six, and a large amount of dates. He took a banana for himself, and peeled it. As they ate they were silent: both being extremely hungry. Caroline ate two, Andrew two and six dates. They wrapped up the other dates in large leaves. Caroline took the baby. She said nothing of the blankets. She had decided she could not bear to take them - it would be like sleeping in a shroud. They stepped out of the hut, and journeyed back. Andrew felt like he was acting in a nativity play. All they needed was a donkey!